at Heidelberg, August 16th, the world loses a student whose name is
inseparably connected with nearly all the chemical work that has been
done in the last fifty years, for it is safe to say that hardly a
discovery has been made or experiment performed to the success of
which some process, property, or instrument discovered, invented, or
suggested by Bunsen, and usually named after him, has not contributed.
A sketch of this illustrious chemist, with a portrait, and an
enumeration of his principal works, each of which might be
characterized as a milestone in the advance of the science, was
published in the Popular Science Monthly for August, 1881 (vol. xix,
page 550). One of the principal events in his life since that sketch
was published was his election, in 1883, as one of the eight foreign
associates of the French Academy of Sciences--the highest honor that
that institution is competent to confer. Besides Bunsen's personal
interest in the work and success of his students, one of his most
salient traits, as described by a careful and appreciative biographer
in the New York Evening Post, was his absentmindedness concerning what
he had himself accomplished. He was afflicted with an "incipient
aphasia," which made it impossible for him to talk about them. "He
could not answer verbal questions, whether oral or written. He could
not have passed a decent examination in his own discoveries. Let the
question come in the shape of an emergency in a chemical operation,
and a wealth of knowledge would be poured out, but let it be put in
words and he could not answer it." He is said to have answered a
student once, who asked him about some substance, that he knew nothing
about it--"You will have to look up the literature." The student
looked up the literature, and found that it consisted of a single
article, and that by Bunsen! Professor Bunsen prized what would
stimulate him to effort, enjoyed life, was fond of travel and
interested in everything human, and was a good novel reader.
=The Unprofitableness of Strikes.=--The cost of a large strike is
impressively illustrated in some of the results of the great colliery
dispute of 1898 in South Wales, as they are set forth in the British
Board of Trade returns and the reports of the consular service. In
direct financial loss, the company suffered to the extent of $100,000,
and the men of $300,000 in wages, besides the demoralization from
being so long out of work. To a certain extent, other districts gained
what the South Wales mines lost by the diversion of trade to them, but
that simply aggravated the evil in the mines, for some of this
diverted trade will stay where it went. It is sometimes said, indeed,
that strikes have only a temporary effect on business, from which it
will recover in time. This is true, however, as is suggested in
Industries and Iron, only when the locality affected has a virtual
monopoly of the trade, while in the competition of the nations
instances of that kind are growing rarer. England especially has many
rivals in these days, eager to take advantage of every opportunity to
profit by its mistakes or misfortunes, and which, when they get their
hands on a good thing, are not apt to let go. Notwithstanding some
strikes at home, the coal trade in the United States derived benefits
from the British strike by sending to markets which the Welsh mines
should have supplied; Germany sent coal to Sweden, and Belgium
increased its shipments to the Canary Islands. Other countries are
induced, by conditions making the usual sources of supply inconvenient
to them, to a more active development of their own resources, as
Austria-Hungary, Spain, and France were in the present case. So it is
more than doubtful whether the present strike paid.
=The Scientific Spirit.=--The study of science, especially of an
experimental science, said Prof. R. H. Chittenden in an informal talk
to students of the Sheffield Scientific School, is peculiarly adapted
for developing the power of independent thought, and of training one
in drawing logical conclusions from experimental data. In the
laboratory is afforded an opportunity for making observations, but if
real benefit is to be derived from the experimental work there must be
a full realization of the necessity of careful thought in drawing
deductions from the results observed. Broad generalizations built on a
slender foundation of fact frequently topple to the ground, and
sometimes carry destruction with them, all because of a lack of that
critical spirit which prompts a careful and thorough consideration of
all the premises. The man who has acquired the habit of careful
thought, of reasoning out each step in a process, of weighing
carefully each reaction involved, of seeking in his own mind the
reason for this or that phenomenon, who looks at both sides of a
question, and carefully considers all the facts available, will build
much more surely and firmly than he who by specious arguments
constructs a glittering hypothesis, only to see it fade away. Hasty
reasoning, insufficient data, obscure facts, are the bane of modern
science. The true scientific spirit prompts to thorough inquiry; it
will have nothing to do with hasty generalizations that may glitter
but do not convince; it puts a restraining hand on all immature
conclusions, and demands, above all else, careful, thorough
observation. It shuns all shams. Good, honest work is the only
passport to the domain of science.
=Constitution of the Funafuti Atoll.=--In the boring of the coral
atoll of Funafuti, Professor David, of the University of Sydney,
reached a depth of 697 feet, and a subsequent boring was made down to
about 1,000 feet. The core obtained by the David party was sent to
England and placed in the hands of Professor Judd for investigation.
The general statement is made respecting it that the material brought
up presents much the same character throughout, and so far is regarded
as supporting Darwin's theory. There are no layers of chalky ooze,
such as Murray's hypothesis might have made possible, and no trace of
volcanic material has been found. The later boring beyond 700 feet
passed through a hard limestone containing many well-preserved corals.
In a boring of the bed of the lagoon down to 144 feet, after passing
through 101 feet of water, the first 80 feet below were found to
consist of the calcareous alga Halimeda mixed with shells, and the
remaining 64 feet of the same material mixed with gravel.
=Metallic Calcium.=--Metallic calcium, as prepared by Professor
Moissan from solution in liquid sodium, separates in hexagonal
crystals which have a specific gravity of 1.85 and melt at 760° _in
vacuo_. On solidifying, the metal is somewhat brittle, is less
malleable than potassium and sodium, and shows a crystalline fracture.
When free from nitride it is silver-white in color, and has a
brilliant surface. Heated to redness in a current of hydrogen, a
crystalline hydride, CaH_{2}, is formed. When pure, calcium is not
acted upon at ordinary temperatures by chlorine, though at 100° C. the
action is decided. But if the metal contains nitride, chlorine attacks
it at the ordinary temperature. At 300° C. calcium ignites and burns
brilliantly in oxygen. Gently warmed in air, it burns with brilliant
scintillations. It combines with sulphur, with incandescence, at 400°
C. At a red heat it unites actively with lampblack, giving a carbide,
CaC_{2}. It gives some brittle alloys with magnesium, zinc, and
nickel. The alloy with tin slowly decomposes water. A crystalline
amalgam is formed with mercury, which may be distilled in hydrogen at
400° C., but which forms nitride when heated in nitrogen. Heated to
redness with potassium or sodium chloride, calcium sets the metal
free. Water acts on calcium only very slowly, with the evolution of
hydrogen. In liquefied ammonia at -40° C. calcium ammonia is formed--a
reddish-brown solid.
=Prosperity and Enterprise in Mexico.=--The increasing prosperity of
Mexico is one of the striking features of current history. In four
years the imports of the country increased from $30,000,000 in 1894 to
upward of $45,000,000 in 1898, the average for five years having been
$40,000,000. The chief sellers to Mexicans are the United States,
Great Britain, France, and Germany, and the keenness of the
competition for trade is shown in the fluctuations in the relative
shares of it of the several countries. Spain has a small share of
trade, which is growing. Industrial enterprises are being developed
throughout the country with energy, enterprise, and success. Cotton
and linen factories have been established, attention is given to the
erection of woolen mills, and a noticeable activity prevails in mining
industries. Under all these influences the railroads are prospering
too.
=A Question of Economy.=--A paper, "Shall we grow the Sugar that we
consume?" by Freeman Stewart, called out by an article by ex-Secretary
Wilson, besides matter bearing directly on the question, embodies
observations on general political principles. Thus, it seems necessary
to observe "that the idea that republicanism requires our public
officials to act as mere weathercocks for the transient waves of
popular clamor and excitement is also a deplorable delusion, which, if
persistently carried into effect, will soon utterly destroy
republicanism. As free institutions depend on the recognition of
correct principles by the people, it is primarily necessary that
correct principles should be constantly impressed upon the attention
of the people. The great need of the nation to-day is wise
leadership--unselfish men, who appreciate the necessity of being
governed by immutable divinely appointed principles, to act as
leaders, to keep the minds of the people centered in the right
direction." Coming to the main subject of the essay, we have, as to
the expediency of taxing ourselves to have sugar made here: "If the
farmer's profits must come from the consumers of sugar as a bounty or
tax, and not from the inherent profitableness of the business, then
the farmer's profits are the consumer's loss. The business is
inherently unprofitable, and no farmer, or any one else, has a right,
'inherent' or otherwise, to carry on an unprofitable business, except
at his own expense.... It may be assumed that the farmers who are
growing the sugar are now growing crops which, if not as profitable as
they desire, are at least sufficiently so to keep them from being
burdensome to the rest of the nation. And how can the prosperity of
the nation be increased by having these same farmers engage in a new
business which will require them to draw on the productive capacity of
the rest of the people to the extent of many millions of dollars
annually, in order to keep their heads above water?"
=Bacteria of the Dairy.=--An investigation of the relation of acid
fermentation to the flavor and aroma of butter, made by C. H. Eckles
at the Iowa College Experiment Station, has given the results that the
flavor is produced by the bacterial fermentations which have taken
place in the milk and cream. The kind of flavor depends upon the class
of bacteria causing the fermentation. The ripening of a good quality
of acid cream is mostly a development of acid bacteria. Four species
of acid-producing bacteria, tested in ripening pasteurized cream, were
found to give the butter the typical flavor and aroma. Of the species
tried, the most common milk-souring organism (_Bacterium lactarii_)
was found to give the most satisfactory results in ripening cream.
Cream ripened with common bacteria found in hay dust (_Bacillus
subtilis_) gives a very undesirable flavor to butter. The superior
flavor of summer butter is due to the greater number of bacteria of
the acid class found in milk during that season.
=For Outdoor Improvement.=--The American Park and Outdoor Association
has taken up and aims to nationalize the important work of the
improvement of outdoors. Not that it expects to improve upon Nature,
but it hopes to be able to neutralize or remedy the devastation and
disfigurement which man has wrought upon her face. At the third annual
meeting of the association, held in Detroit in July, 1899, preliminary
steps were taken toward offering prizes for the improvement of grounds
about manufactories and homes--both front and back lots--and
especially about the homes of artisans. A standing committee was
instituted to consider the best way of checking abuses of public
advertising. A paper read by Mr. F. Law Olmstead, on the Relation of
Reservoirs to Public Parks, concerned such construction of reservoirs
and the surrounding them with suitable settings as would bring them
into closer harmony with the park landscape and make them more a part
of it. Another paper, by Mr. R. J. Coryell, of the Detroit parks,
might be described as an effort to show how a similar service may be
performed for the parks and the people--in other words, how to make
the people at home in the parks. Its points were illustrated by citing
what had been done in Detroit. Respecting means of preventing
depredations, Mr. C. C. Lancey told of good results accomplished in
Rochester, N. Y., by the distribution of circulars of information on
the subject; and Mr. F. L. Olmstead, Jr., of the interest taken by the
children in the school gardens in Cambridge, Mass.
=Where Physical Investigation Fails.=--From the discussion of the
physical method, with its descriptive laws and applications and
hypotheses, Prof. J. H. Poynting was led, in his address at the
British Association, to the consideration of the limitation of its
range. It was developed in the study of matter which we describe as
non-living, and with non-living matter it has sufficed for the
particular purposes of the physicist. Of course, only a little corner
of the universe has been explored, but in the study of non-living
matter we have come to no impassable gulfs, no chasms across which we
can not throw bridges of hypothesis. Does the method equally suffice
when it is applied to living matter? Can we give a purely physical
account of such matter? Do we make any attempt to apply the physical
method to describe and explain those motions of matter which on the
psychical view we term voluntary? In practice the strictest physicist
abandons the physical view, and replaces it by the psychical. He
admits the study of purpose as well as the study of motion, and has to
confess that here the physical method of prediction fails.
=Honors to Sullivant and Lesquereux.=--"Sullivant day," August 22d,
was devoted in the American Association to the commemoration of the
lives and works of William S. Sullivant and C. Leo Lesquereux,
botanists, the former distinguished for his studies in the mosses and
the latter for his researches in paleobotany, both of whom lived and
did the work by which they became famous in Columbus, Ohio. Sullivant
was born and passed the whole of his life in Columbus. Lesquereux, a
Swiss by birth, lived in Columbus during many of his most fruitful
years, and worked alongside of Sullivant. A considerable number of
objects associated with the two botanists were on exhibition--rare
botanical specimens, charts and pictures connected with their labors,
and complete sets of their published works--and excellent and highly
prized portraits of them were shown. The families of both were
represented by the presence of daughters and granddaughters, among
whom was Miss Arhart, a granddaughter of Lesquereux, who was
associated with him in part of his work, and made most of the drawings
for his later books. Prof. C. R. Barnes presided over the exercises.
Prof. W. A. Kellerman read a tribute to Sullivant from Dr. Gray's
supplement to the Icones. Mrs. Britton gave a short review of the
species named from Sullivant (including twelve North American mosses).
Professor Barnes read a tribute to Lesquereux, taken from the
Botanical Gazette. Remarks were made and papers read on the Progress
in the study of the Hepatica, by Prof. L. M. Underwood; the Moss Flora
of Alabama, by Dr. Charles Mohr (read by Professor Earle); the History
of the Study of the Mosses, by Mrs. Britton; the Classification of
Certain Mosses, by A. J. Grout; the Study of Lichen Distribution in
the Mississippi Valley, by Bruce Fink; and Botanical Teaching in the
Secondary Schools, by W. C. Stevens and Ida Clendenin. Among the
exhibits, those of twelve species of hepaticæ from California, by
Prof. F. E. Lloyd; forty-five photographs of American students and
collectors made famous by their work in mosses, by Mrs. Britton and
Professor Underwood; and six species of mosses discovered and
collected originally by Sullivant and Lesquereux near Columbus,
deserve special mention.
=Rate of Evolutionary Variation in the Past.=--Mr. Adam Sedgwick,
speaking, in his address at the British Association, of variation,
selection, and heredity, having raised the question whether the
variability of organisms has ever been different from what it is now,
answered it in the affirmative, because it would be absurd to suppose
that organisms would remain constant in this respect while they have
undergone alteration in all their other properties. According to the
Darwinian theory of evolution, one of the most important factors in
determining the modification of organisms has been natural selection.
It acts by preserving certain favorable variations, and allowing
others less favorable to be killed off in the struggle for existence.
It will thus come about that certain variations will be gradually
eliminated, while the variations of the selected organisms will
themselves be submitted to selection, and certain of these will in
their turn be eliminated. In this way a group of organisms becomes
more and more closely adapted to the surroundings. It would thus
appear that the result of continued selection is to diminish the
variability of a species. Hence, as selection has been going on all
the while, variation must have been much greater in past times than it
is now. Following out this train of reasoning, we are driven to the
conclusion that one of the most important results of the evolutionary
change has been the gradual increase and perfection of heredity as a
function of organisms and a gradual elimination of variability. This
view, if it can be established, is of the utmost importance to our
theoretical conception of evolution, because it enables us to bring
our requirements as to time within the limits granted by the
physicists.
MINOR PARAGRAPHS.
Of the archæology of Block Island, Arthur Hollick found in his
explorations that around the shores of Great Salt Pond and on the sand
dunes that border the western shores of the island evidences of former
occupation by the Indians are numerous. Kitchen middens are exposed in
several street cuttings, implements are often found scattered over the
surface of the ground in certain localities, and skeletons have been
unearthed from time to time. In many places the kitchen midden
accumulations were so obvious that it was impossible to ignore them
entirely. They were found to consist of the customary collection of
oyster and other shells, bones, pottery fragments, fire-cracked
stones, charcoal, finished implements, rejects, flakes, chips, etc.
The finished implements found were two axes, of a plagioclase igneous
rock, and three arrow points, all of quartzite. In the sand dunes were
many old fireplaces, mostly buried by the sand which has drifted over
them. They could generally be located by the richness of the turf on
the surface immediately above. Mixed with the accumulations in these
places were the bones and teeth of animals. The island promises a good
reward for archæological investigation.
In a form of disease known as peckiness in the cypress and pin-rot in
the _librocedrus_, described by Hermann von Schrenk in a thesis
presented to Washington University, the wood is destroyed in localized
areas, which are surrounded by apparently sound wood. The cell walls
are changed into compounds, which diffuse through the walls and fill
the cells surrounding the decayed center, and these have been called
humus compounds. In both trees a fungus mycelium occurs, with strongly
marked characteristics, which flourishes within the diseased centers,
and grows between them without affecting the intervening wood. This
wood can be utilized for many purposes even when much rotted, and in
neither case does the mycelium grow after the tree has once been cut
down. The two trees thus diseased, both representatives of a race of
trees the majority of which are extinct, are closely related
genetically, although growing in different parts of the country. The
two forms of decay differ but slightly, and not more than might be
expected in two woods of different character.
Mr. J. C. Arthur, of the Purdue University Agricultural Experiment
Station, a few years ago picked up a small white flower (_Cerastium
arvense oblongifolium_) growing unobtrusively among the grass and low
weeds of the roadside. It was a little more attractive than its
relative which is called the field chickweed, and the author suggests
the name of starry grasswort for it. Under cultivation it spread out
over the ground in a close mat of foliage in a manner characteristic
of many members of the pink family, to which it belongs; and now for
six weeks in April and May it is a mass of "dazzling whiteness,
softened with the pale green of stems and leaves," while "all winter
long the prostrate stems remain alive to their very tips, and the
leaves maintain a summerlike appearance," without the indurated,
polished look so usually associated with evergreen foliage. This is
one roadside flower taken up, perhaps casually, for cultivation and
improvement. There are others--no one knows how many--that will
doubtless likewise reward the pains taken with them; and this inspires
Mr. Arthur to suggest to others that they keep a lookout for plants
that may become desirable garden varieties and try them. "It is
evident that showiness in the wild state is not the most important
criterion by which to gauge the future culture value of a plant. One
needs to have many factors in mind to meet with success, and it is
hoped that the study of the starry grasswort will be suggestive in
this line. The byways and fields undoubtedly hold many incipiently
valuable decorative plants which await the discoverer, as truly as do
those of the unexplored regions of Asia and Africa."
An experiment has been tried in New York during the past summer in the
way of "vacation schools" for teaching housekeeping and domestic
economy. Instruction was given daily in these arts in the public
schoolrooms in Front and Oliver Streets and in Hester Street. At Front
and Oliver Streets girls were taught to air, clean, and take care of a
bedroom; to set table, clean, and take care of a living room; kitchen
cleanliness; laundry work--one week being devoted to each course, and
talks were given on furnishing a flat, the care of a cellar, and the
importance of air and sunlight to health. The children were also
taught daily to cook appetizing dishes and serve them. At Hester
Street more time was given to the cooking lessons, instruction was
given on the feeding of babies, and a class in nursing was taught;
among other things, emergency bandaging, caring for helpless patients,
and the hygiene of the sick-room.
Mr. A. P. Coleman, during some geological work last summer on the
north shore of Lake Superior, about Heron Bay, discovered a new
mineral, which he has named _Heronite_, and which he describes at
length in the Journal of Geology for July-August. It is a dike rock,
consisting essentially of analcite, orthoclase, plagioclase, and
ægyrite, the analcite having the character of a base, in which the
other minerals form radiating groups of crystals. The analcite clearly
represents the magma left after the crystallization of the imbedded
minerals, and it is evident that it can be formed only from a magma
highly charged with water, and therefore under pressure.